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"They Used Us"

This documentary produced by a history class in Enderun features the Lolas of LILA Pilipina -- Lola Virgie Villamar, Lola Dolor Molinas among them -- also LILA Pilipina Executive Director Rechilda Extremadura. I was moved to tears by the work of these students. What a great project and a noble act, to sit with the survivors and listen. To process the stories and then to share. Thank you.

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Maria Rosa Henson, or Lola Rosa, was the first Filipina Comfort Woman of WWII to come forward publicly on September 12, 1992. Because of Lola Rosa, many other Filipinas who had been living with this secret for over 50 years found the courage to come forward and finally speak their truth, finally ask for their apology, finally free themselves from the stories.

Here is an excerpt from her book, COMFORT WOMAN: Slave of Destiny (Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, 1996). This passage occurs in 1943. She's 16 years old and she has just been abducted and placed into a garrison, a former town hospital close to Magalang, Pampanga near Manila.

Without warning, a Japanese soldier entered my room and pointed his bayonet at my chest. I thought he was going to kill me, but he used his bayonet to slash my dress and tear it open. I was too frightened to scream. And then he raped me. When he was done, other soldiers came into my room and they took turns raping me.

The sun streams in through the wall-sized window, casting afternoon light on our family room. Outside the trees sway vibrant and green, shade a small figure of Mama Mary. She welcomes me too with arms stretched and hands waiting. Inside, noise percolates from every room of the house. I am home. From my suitcase I pull a salmon colored tapestry. When you first glance at it, the greens, blues and reds flash a beautiful montage of color. The folds unwind and reveal the fine embroidery.

I’m telling my mother and sister-in-law that when Lola Remedios learned I was coming, she began working on this piece as gift to me. It took her all six months to get this far in the tapestry. Every piece – every letter and image has been cut from other fabrics and painstakingly hand-sewn into the cloth. Except for the missing D where she has sewn, “(D)ecember 20, 1942, Dito Ako Nahuli Sa Lugar ng Baryo Esperanza,” it’s all there – the Dagitan River, green…

Lola Precsilla Bartonico was born on January 6, 1926 on the island of Leyte, Philippines. Here is an excerpt from Lola Prescilla’s testimony to the Japanese government:

One day in the late months of 1943 when I was about 17 years old, the Japanese soldiers captured us as we were hiding in one of the air raid shelters. We were only two women in that group who were all my relatives. They started raping my cousin while the other soldiers tied up the men. I was about 17 years old then. Then they tied me and one soldier raped me. I wanted to resist but I was too afraid to for fear of getting killed. After, they brought us to the town of Burauen and I was brought to the elementary school which they converted into garrison. We arrive in there late afternoon. I saw around 15 women who were also raped like what they did to me. After that, I was brought to the Home Economics Building and saw two women inside.

Then my suffering started at the hands of the Japanese soldiers. We were bein…